Show ua U S and mexico clai claim m rich frich land property in heart of el paso now worth in dispute for ye years ars RIVER CAUSES controversy incorrigibly vagrant habits of the rio grande cause dispute which has remained unsettled for sixty years el paso tex tes when a acre tract covered with industrial lamproe indents worth more than in the heart of a large american city floes does not know whether it belongs to the united states or mexico the situation may presumably otter offer faint hope to victims of income and excess profits taxation otherwise however it Is rau glit with disadvantages which overbalance these largely hypothetical benefits at least these are the conclusions reached by the officials of the santa fe railroad yards here and the own rs of the large packing stock yard lumber and milling interests who in the last twenty years have built up southeast of the el paso union station in what is known as the Cha chamisal chamizal district one of the most thriving and compact industrial centers in the southwest also these are the reasons why a statement recently attributed tri to undersecretary of state pletcher tl etcher that in any treaty to precede united states recognition of mexico the chamisal chamizal Cha question will be settled and settled right has pleased several business men of more than local connections as much as any ile de point in the administrational administration a mexico policy yet revealed sixty year old controversy the Cha chamisal chamizal controversy now approaching pro aching the age of sixty years is the result of the incorrigibly vagrant habits of the rio grande river which whick cowing out of the new mexico mountains begins to form the hie boundary with old mexico a few miles west of rl el paso it is by no means the only ili arising from the same cause along the 1500 miles of looped and twisted stream bed between here and Irown sille tex but it Is the only me in which anything like so much valuable alu able industrial property is involved in so small sin an area realizing that the rio grande was not to be trusted to keep to its bed the mexico and american peace commissioners miss loners ners who illo fixed the international boundary after the mexican var in the treaty of guadelupe 18 ia agreed that when changes in the river channel came about by accretion that Is 19 gradually the boundary should follow the river bed but that eliat when sudden budden cutoffs were formed by the rivers violently breaking through dry do land to make a new course tills this process Is called in the technical jargon of river experts the old deserted channel chandel should continue to be the unit line this formula would have leed no doubt if in to its prowling proclivities the rio grande had not de developed loped a sly nad deceitful disposition welting until the entire american population of the re region ion 00 years ago a few soldiers in faraway military outposts were away in the civil war and until the mexican border garrisons were lik likewise enise busy fighting for or against the austrian usurper maximilian the river between and 1803 1865 deserted its old channel a few blocks below the principal business district of el paso for a bed approximately a quarter of a mile farther west and south which in the main it still occupies chamisal chamizal Cha lies iles between the old bed and the new cause of controversy the controversy hinges on whether this change was accomplished by accretions cret ions or by the united states position is that the change cl iange though relatively rapid came about through gradual alterations of the channel extending over several years and not at all as the result of a sudden break through dry land hence say the lie americans the international boundary according to the 1848 treaty follows the present river channel find and the zone Is american territory on the other hand the mexican Ilex ican government claims that the alterations of tile gs were the result of eVUS IOD making liiK chamisal chamizal Cha Clia mexican neither government regarded afie controversy as worth woith nn an argument until the rapid metropolitan growth of el pazo pao began 35 3 i years ago by that time the testimony of the few mexicans who had witnessed the changes of the he GOs was so confused and conflicting as to be of little value consequently the Per permanent manen I 1 mexican american bouin boundary dary commission charged with keeping track of tho nio itlo grandes wanderings has never deen able to reach an agreement on Chanil zal |